We are in beautiful Berlin at the Blockchain Technology Conference! From November 19 to 21, experts from around the world share their blockchain knowledge.
Need a rundown? Let’s open up our notebook and see what we have learned so far.
Blockchain requires reliability and stability
Co-founder and managing director of Thinktecture AG Ingo Rammer summarized the current state of blockchain in his keynote “Blockchain 2018 – Where are we today?“. What are the questions that you need to ask yourself before choosing blockchain technologies? He discussed the underlying landscape of public and private blockchain tools and the ecological and economic impact of different consensus algorithms.
#Blockchain tips: Decentralization needs clear governance. If you don’t have a governance model, you don’t have a decentralized model – @ingorammer #BCTechConf
— JAXenter.com (@JAXenterCOM) November 20, 2018
Here’s what we learned while putting together our technological roadmap:
- The reasons for decentralization: safety, control over your data (self-sovereignty). However, we have to be aware of the technology’s maturity. We are still in the early learning phases.
- Private blockchain networks are less experimental so their purpose is to solve efficiency.
- Public vs private blockchain conversation: they will eventually converge but it will take a few years. Large blockchains may happen in the future.
- The pace will accelerate! New public chains will appear in the future along with new private chains. Choice is generally a good thing, but we need to understand that few of these technologies will remain. Most of them will die before they reach maturity.
- Value creation happens on the edge of the network, not inside. Your decentralized platform will survive, even if you quit. If it doesn’t, this means you haven’t really created a decentralized platform.
- Can your business model run on a central database with an API in front? Maybe you don’t really need blockchain.
- Decentralization needs clear governance. You need to find a documented process for every change you make. For private networks, governance is more important than the choice of a particular technology.
- You can even change your technology. Great governance models will survive this. If you don’t have a governance model, you don’t have a decentralized model.
- Focus on decentralization, not blockchains.
- Look into private chains to create value. Businesses like efficiency!
SEE ALSO: Blockchain glossary: Lesson No. 2 – Asking the right questions
3 triggers for adoption:
- We need to find a way to manage identity and privacy.
- We need a decentralized key recovery. As crypto grows in the mainstream market, we need a way to recover everything. (This is already in the works.)
- We need reliable stable coins. Central banks must guarantee stable coins for uses such as retail.
The adoption for customers will skyrocket if these 3 triggers are met.
© Shutterstock / Visual Generation (modified)
Hyperledger Fabric v1.4 will be the first LTS
In his session titled Introduction to Hyperledger Fabric, IBM’s Arnaud Le Hors offers an overview of this framework, its characteristics, and its roadmap. If you’re new to Hyperledger Fabric, you should know that it is an implementation of blockchain technology intended as a foundation for developing blockchain applications for the enterprise.
Key Hyperledger Fabric characteristics:
- Permissioned
- Highly modular: pluggable consensus, ledger, membership services, endorsement, and validation
- Smart contracts in general purpose languages
- Privacy
- No “mining” or native crypto-currency required for consensus
- Execute-order-validate vs. order-execute
A new version of Hyperledger Fabric is released every quarter. Even though there have been some hiccups, the next version (1.4) will be released in December. What’s exciting about this release? Version 1.4 will be the framework’s first LTS release.
SEE ALSO: Blockchain scalability for supply chains
If you’d like to dive deeper into the Hyperledger Fabric ecosystem, don’t miss this interview with IBM Distinguished Engineer, Christopher Ferris.
If Ethereum is your weapon of choice but you’d like to find out if it plays nicely with Hyperledger Fabric, we’ve got you covered! Since Hyperledger Fabric now supports Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) bytecode smart contracts, this popular blockchain framework is now more accessible to developers who have already started working with Ethereum and its associated tools. We talked to Christopher Ferris, IBM Distinguished Engineer about the implications of this step, what it means for Ethereum and blockchain developers & more. Read the entire interview here.
Trusted digital identity network: Key elements & benefits
If you’re enjoying the summary of Arnaud’s talk, you’re in luck, there’s more. He also delivered a keynote today titled Towards self-sovereign identity, in which he walked us through the journey to self-sovereign identity and described the key elements of a trusted digital identity framework.
A trusted digital identity network benefits individuals, businesses and governments.
One of the tools for the problem at hand is Hyperledger Indy, distributed ledger, purpose-built for decentralized identity. Its claims include:
- real-time credentials verification (without direct connections to issuers)
- revocable (anonymously)
- privacy-respecting
What’s the end result of Indy’s efforts? According to Daniel Hardman, Hyperledger Indy maintainer, “Indy technology will eventually be the fulcrum around which a revolution in personal digital empowerment, security, and privacy pivots. The world will shift away from institutions granting identities on terms they control to a paradigm where people create their own identities with lower cost and greater freedom and confidence. We’ll all benefit – people already active in the digital economy who are surveilled and manipulated today; populations that have been disenfranchised by lack of access; companies that want richer and more trusted interactions with customers.”
If you’re interested in Hyperledger Indy, you should have a look at this interview.
Once the blockchain innovation happens, it is used to solve business problems
The panel State of the Art – Where does the German Blockchain ecosystem stand? is self-explanatory. It tries to answer questions such as: How does the German blockchain ecosystem look like? How can it help businesses? Does blockchain need to be part of a business strategy? Does it make sense to be added to an existent strategy? One thing is certain; once the innovation happens, it is used to solve the business problems.
In the long run, all the existing private chains will somehow converge to public chains.
– Ingo Rammer
Companies in Germany are overwhelmed with digitalization.
– Katarina Adam
A lot of people in the German blockchain ecosystem want to comply with regulation but they don’t know how.
– Ha Duong
When companies mature, they want regulation because that’s what introduces trust.
– Vinita Rathi
More to come! Stay tuned for more updates from the Blockchain Technology Conference!
The post Blockchain Technology Conference takeaways: 3 triggers for blockchain adoption [UPDATE] appeared first on JAXenter.
Source : JAXenter
